Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, and Jerry Bruckheimer believe that part of the failure of The Lone Ranger is due to American critics, who they feel unfairly prejudged the a film that was “brave” with “an absurdist independent feel to it.”

In fact, Depp even suggests that American critics wrote their reviews eight or nine months before they even saw the movie, which is kind of silly because it gives American critics way too much credit for working that far in advance. I’m not sure that any critic has ever seen, say, a trailer and sat down to write a review for the film. There are other things to write; there are higher priorities than reviews that won’t publish for nine months, like, for instance, movie reviews that screened, say, yesterday.

Indeed, I think Bruckheimer should know more than anyone that his movies are critic-proof. I don’t think anyone has ever said, “Hey babe. Before we make our moviegoing decision, what’d The New Yorker have to say about Coyote Ugly?” (They were WILD about it!)

Plus, The Lone Ranger opened with $48 million over the long 4th of July weekend. That’s a lot of money, and only because the film costs $200 million is that considered a failure. The fact that it wound up with only $86 million during the rest of its domestic run has less to do with critics, and more to do with poor word of mouth.

Anyway, here’s three minutes of Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Armie Hammer (who does so against the advice of his publicists) slamming critics for slamming The Lone Ranger.